I have often wondered
why so many women visit NoBeliefs.com. I checked the ratio of men-to-women responders on this
site and discovered that an inordinate number of women visit this site. Yes,
men still visit more than women, but the ratio of women appears far more than
internet averages. It began to dawn on me after receiving several emails from
free-women that, of course, it comes from the very idea of leaving behind
beliefs, the very beliefs that once held women down for so many centuries.

The pre-historical archeological
record makes it clear that the earliest known statuettes depicted women (the
earliest figurine yet discovered came from 500,000 and 300,000 BCE). Women
probably created the first art in human society (shell
beads made 100,000 years ago). Feminine fertility symbols abounded in
early culture such as the famous Venus
of Willendorf, carved from 30,000 to 15,000 BCE. Some historians suggest
that women created the first written language, cultivated the first agricultural
crops, and represented the first idols for religious worship (love-sex-union,
motherhood-birth-creation, cycle-death-rejuvenation). Women of the first agricultural
societies held positions of power, ownership, and respect. During the historical period things began to change for women. Patriarchal societies became more dominate and women had less influence although they still sometimes held positions of power.

There even once
lived warrior women such as the Spartan princess Arachidamia, and the Celtic Queen Boudica and the Amazons, a nation of all-female warriors in Classical and Greek mythology. (I should also note that, to women's credit, there occurs far less female warriors than men warriors throughout history and, in fact, anthropological studies of both non-human primates and humans have shown that matriarchal societies tend to reduce violence and warfare.)

Women
in early history openly used contraceptive devices and herbal abortants. Women governed, and determined marriages. How in the world did they lose their status?
Women fell pray to male domination beliefs. Women held respect until
the event of male based organized religions based on conquest, war, and domination.
Once the monotheism religions gained power, so went the liberties of women.
Women became slaves, servants, and wives. Mosaic law prohibited women from
serving as priestesses and temple prostitutes. The Hebrews used the same word for priestess as they
did for prostitute (zonah and qedeshot). The Temple priestesses, worshiped through sexual acts and given offerings were not technically prostitutes but the practice was eventually forbidden as a form of prostitution.

Thus began the myth of the
inferiority of women. The ancient symbols used by priestesses became associated
with evil. The serpent which once represented rejuvenation and health became
the symbol of evil and the devil. The snake cults and worship of Isis holding snakes were popular in antiquity (the symbol still lives today in the form
of the caduceus, snakes wound around a staff).
The horns of the Bull, once used to symbolize the Goddess Hathor, Goddess
Diana, and other goddesses, turned into a symbol of Satan's horns. The Tree
of Knowledge became a symbol of evil temptation. The woman, once regarded
as a symbol of the goddess, turned into a symbol of original sin. Statues
of naked or pregnant women became symbols of immorality (pornography). The
reversal of the original meanings of these feminine concepts became associated
with evil ever since the unknown authors penned them into the Bible. Women now became the origin of sin and the blame for the fall of man (Genesis 3, 1-16 and later, 1 Timothy 2, 14).

Women of Judeo-Christian
religions became married to men (never men married to women). Once married,
a woman lost her name, property, and status as an individual. The husband
owned the wife, the children, and the property. She became a part of man,
a womb-man. Women served as chattel in the early Hebrew religion. In Christianity, the Catholic Church declared women as
below man (the divine hierarchal order became: God, man, women, animal).

By this time only a few pagans revered woman as worthy of respect, in some cases in religious worship and in others, philosophy and science (The Goddess Venus and Hypatia as scientist for example), although, by this time in history it should be noted that even in many pagan societies, men looked down on women. The constant barrage
against the pagan religions by Christians took its toll after Christianity became a state religion in 380 CE. During the reign of Theodosius, the ban on pagan religions, and later the killing of pagans themselves, marked the end of pagan influence and the beginning
of the Dark Ages ruled by Christians. The Christians won. No longer would women hold positions of power and respect in the Western world until centuries later.

Not until the Enlightenment
in the 1800s did women begin to openly question their role in society. In
America, women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Margaret
Sanger, fought
for women's emancipation. Amazingly, not until 1920 did women have the right
to vote in national elections in the United States. To this day, we see the remnants of ancient
Biblical beliefs that continue to enslave women's minds and bodies. In virtually
every case, the beliefs derive from religion and superstition, beliefs that
serve to justify the control of women by men.

Every liberty earned,
every freedom, every right for women came as a result of freethinking men
and women, people who rejected the tenets of the Bible, people who said "no!" to the shamans and priests.

No wonder then that eliminating
beliefs not only frees women, but it empowers them with limitless possibilities.
No beliefs means liberty.

The following represents
some of the remaining beliefs that hold women down:

Marriage:
Marriage has nothing to do with natural biology. It does, however, have everything
to do with cultural beliefs. In short marriage goes against nature. Free women
realize the trappings of marriage.

Gender superiority:
Neither men nor women can possibly own superiority over the other without
beliefs. Men and women differ simply because of biological and cultural differences.
Free women know the differences.

Judeo-Christian-Islamic
religions: The male dominated religions serve as the main cause for
keeping women from their freedoms. They continue to deny women the right to
their bodies, the choice of birth, and to hold important positions of power.
Free women realize the advantages of staying well away from religion.

What describes a free
woman? A woman who has disowned beliefs and who has control over her life.
A women who thinks instead of believes.